This month in my Ohio Road Trips column in the Saturday, June 26 edition of the Plain Dealer we head for Southeast Ohio.  Here is an excerpt:

Zanesville, located on U. S. Route 40, the history-filled “National Road”, that spans central Ohio, has a lot to offer for an Ohio Road Trip.

Foremost is their new artist colony that has taken over several of the buildings in the historic downtown.  Led by nationally known sculptor and artist, Alan Cottrill who moved into a seventeen thousand square foot building in the city.  His collection of larger-than-life  bronze sculptures of people and animals has become a tourist attraction.  It’s claimed that Cottrill has completed and has on display over 450 pieces of his work and that is more than any other gallery featuring a  living artist anywhere in the world.  Cottrill’s gallery and studio is open to the public six days a week.  But even if it is closed you can still enjoy nearly two dozen of the huge bronzes displayed along South Sixth Street near his studio.

The artists’ colony that has grown up in and around Zanesville consists of  over a dozen studios that range from painting and ceramics to the massive bronzes than Cottrill works in.  All of them welcome the public and you can get a listing of locations from the Zanesville-Muskingum Convention and Visitor’s Bureau or visit them at their website at http://www.visitzanesville.com

Sitting in the middle of town like a big Victorian birthday cake is the historic building that serves as the Muskingum County Courthouse.  The beautifully restored structure fills the downtown skyline.  It was on this location from 1810 to 1812 that the second capitol of Ohio once stood.  The building was later torn down to make way for the present courthouse when the Capitol was moved, again, eventually ending in its present location in Columbus…..

……For the rest of this story visit the Plain Dealer Website, www.cleveland.com